Sharjah: A journalist walked out of the room as a sign of protest after Octavia Nasr refused to comment on her forced resignation from CNN.
Octavia worked with the US news channel for 20 years and became the Middle East editor, but was fired last July after she expressed her condolences on Twitter over the death of Ayatollah Mohammad Hussain Fadlallah, who was instrumental in the establishment of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"People came here to gossip and had an agenda that was different to mine. To repeat things that you already know is a waste of time, and what they wanted to hear was out there already," said Octavia, speaking on the sidelines of a lecture she gave last Tuesday evening at the Sharjah International Book Fair.
Many of the audience members said they left the lecture disappointed because they wanted to listen to her experience as an Arab who worked in the American media, and whether she could confirm that the Western media were biased against the Arab world.
Other audience members also protested that she only came to promote her new business and said they were upset that she declined to get into a discussion of the politics surrounding Western media.
"I am here to launch a new beginning of me," she said, as she told the audience members that she was launching her media consultancy firm Bridges Media Consulting.
Octavia said she expected the consultancy would start operating by next year. "I want to make a difference and inspire others to do the same," she said.
"I believe in bridging and connecting, and that is what my company's about."
Octavia said that she was still lying low and did not like to be in the limelight, but that she could no longer stay away from the media after she became a household name.
"One day I would like to write a book about my experience as a war correspondent in the first Gulf War, and after 9/11 when I was stationed at Al Jazeera TV for five weeks and saw the videos coming in from Osama Bin Laden.
"But I don't want to share opinions because that is irresponsible," she said.
